


Dead Man Knocking

by Lyra_Dhani



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Brothers, Gen, Night Terrors, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Worried Papyrus (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:34:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22274902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyra_Dhani/pseuds/Lyra_Dhani
Summary: Sans was looking out of window. When he noticed Papyrus coming in, he turned and smiled. “good morning, papyrus.”There were rare occasions like these, when Sans would wake up without Papyrus banging his door, but it was usually accompanied with bloody screams and glowing blue eyes. And Papyrus would always rush to his side as his brother sobbing and shaking in his hands, calling his name in desperation and high-pitched voice that Papyrus didn’t know his brother was capable of.
Relationships: Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 60





	Dead Man Knocking

Just like usual, Papyrus knocked on Sans’ door. This was part of the morning routine: going to Sans’ room, barging into his room, waking him up and then nagging him to start doing the chores.

This time too, when Papyrus knocked and called for his brother, there was no answer from the other side of the door. Obviously, his brother was still sleeping.

It was just how he was. Not even bothering to pick up his socks, leaving his room in a mess, hanging out in Grillby a little too often for his own good. Lazy defined Sans in a way no words could.

At least, that was how it looked like to Papyrus. Flowey prefered the term dead.

(“But he’s not dead,” Papyrus insisted time and time again. Flowey would snort and turned his cheek the other side. He never did elaborate what he meant. ( _But then again, the little creature seemed to like speaking in double meanings, just like Sans sometimes_ ))

Papyrus sighed. He never showed it, but honestly, he was concerned. He wouldn’t go as far calling Sans dead, but it was true that Sans wasn’t exactly... alive. Because Sans was the way he was, he could trip and cracked his skull, he would still smile and make a pun out of it. It had happened once and it was not a memory Papyrus was fond of, especially because Sans only stopped smiling when Papyrus started crying. Especially because the smile with the blood trickled down his skull he showed that day was never changing, exactly the same smile it was when Papyrus threw a snowball at him or when Grillby served them high-quality beef for free or when Metatton threw a glorious party.

Sans smiled and dragged his feet and cracked a joke and fall a sleep and smiled so much nobody could really see what he was thinking.

Sans was very ~~broken~~ lazy.

Papyrus took a deep breath.

“SANS, IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP.”

He opened the door.

Sans was looking out of window. When he noticed Papyrus coming in, he turned and smiled. “good morning, papyrus.”

There were rare occasions like these, when Sans would wake up without Papyrus banging his door, but it was usually accompanied with bloody screams and glowing blue eyes. And Papyrus would always rush to his side as his brother sobbing and shaking in his hands, calling his name in desperation and high-pitched voice that Papyrus didn’t know his brother was capable of.

Sans seemed to notice what he was thinking. “paps, i am fine.”

A lie. Another thing about Sans was, he lied everyday. _i’ll pick up the socks_ , _papyrus_ , he had said as he continued lying on the sofa. _of course, papyrus, i’ll never forget_ , he had said as they both know he’d keep forgetting. _i am ‘kay, papyrus_ , he had smiled and put the hoodie over his skull, and even though Papyrus couldn’t see his face then, he knew that Sans knew he was breaking.

It might not be total lies, but to him they were all the same.

 _And lies were always associated with deception_ , Flowey had said. _Aren’t you angry at your brother?_

Flowey had sounded angry then. At what, Papyrus didn’t know. He had shrugged and simply answered, _IT SEEMS HE’S JUST TRYING TO FOOL HIMSELF INTO BELIEVING HIS OWN LIES_. Flowey had asked why would he do that. Papyrus didn’t answer as he didn’t have one.

There were a lot of things Papyrus wanted to understand.

And even though Papyrus couldn’t read his brother’s mind any more than his friends, at least he understood what he should do.

“COME ON, SANS, WE’RE ALMOST LATE FOR OUR DUT-,” he stopped then when he saw Sans shivered into his blanket. “UNLESS YOU NEED MORE REST, I MEAN-“

Sans chuckled. “what? this isn’t like you.”

He jumped down from his bed and looking at him closer, Papyrus could see the dark circles under his eyes. He played with his fingers in nervous tendency. There was a very high possibility that Sans didn’t sleep at all last night, it wouldn’t be the first time, but bringing that up now didn’t seem to be a very good idea.

“WELL, SANS, YOU SEEM LIKE YOU NEED A REST-“

“no, pap, i am just bone-tired that’s all.”

For all his laziness, his brother could be very stubborn and it was a side of him that Papyrus never knew how to handle. He decided to let it drop. For now at least.

Sans descended the stair, humming a tune that sounded too much like a battle song, something that totally contradicted his nature. It seemed to be a subconcious habbit because whenever Papyrus pointed it out, Sans’ face would went blank and he’d said in genuinely confused manner, _what are you talking about?_

Saying he was confused was an understatement. Sans had looked completely lost, it disturbed him for some reason and to this day Papyrus couldn’t understand why humming a perfectly fine tune could rattle his brother so much. Still, the rare open display of such fragile emotion made Papyrus uncomfortable so he stopped bringing it up.

But what was really concerning was the fact that Sans himself didn’t seem to understand why he reacted the way he did. And so Papyrus couldn’t help but stare as Sans kept humming the tune with his trademark smile.

When Sans noticed his stare, he froze in his track, his smile faltered. “i did it again, didn’t i?”

Papyrus stared. “SANS, I THINK YOU SHOULD STAY HOME TODAY.”

Humming that tune had always been a bad sign of Sans’ health. The last time Papyrus heard it, Sans had collapsed two hours later, clutching his chest with painful expression and nobody could do anything and Papyrus could only watch as his brotherslowlydying-.

“papyrus, i am fine.”

There was a flicker in his eyes and Papyrus thought not even Sans could fool himself forever.

“OKAY, BUT IF ANYTHING EVEN GOING _SLIGHTLY_ WRONG, YOU’RE GOING HOME, SANS.”

“okay, papyrus.”

 _PLEASE_ , Papyrus prayed in his mind. _DON’T LET THIS BE ANOTHER LIE._

**Author's Note:**

> It was originally multi-chapter fics with actual mistery plot. But with everything going on, like my last semester coming up for example, I don't think I can finish such complex story, so it just turned into simple one-shot instead.


End file.
